How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance

Let's check in with what the actual founders of this company said:

  Are we trying to put corner stores out of business?

  Definitely not. Challenging the urban corner store is not
  and has never been our goal.

  Corner stores have been fixtures of their neighborhoods for
  generations. They stock thousands of items, far more than we
  could ever fit on a few shelves. Their owners know what
  products to carry and in many cases who buys what. And
  they’re run by people who in addition to selling everything
  from toilet paper to milk also offer an integral human
  connection to their patrons that our automated storefronts
  never will.

This endgadget post is lying clickbait. It's "two minutes hate" for 21st century America.

Did you read the article? That very statement by the founders is discussed and contextualized within. Where's the lie?

This quote is in the article, where it makes it clear that the founders only said it after the backlash had begun.

When you say that a company is trying to do something that:

1) They've explicitly said they aren't trying to do.

2) Given their product, would be a ridiculous thing to try to do in the first place.

It's a lie.

It doesn't matter when they said it. It should be self evident to anyone that it's true. You can't replace a store with ~1000 products with a vending machine that stocks ~30.

The timing matters because it contradicts something they said before they starting facing criticism.

"Eventually, centralized shopping locations won't be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you."

Whether it's possible or not, it was their aim, according to this statement anyway.

The title & OP don't claim that this company want to eliminate bodegas… it's about cultural insensitivity.

Are you arguing against the linked FastCompany article?

From the article:

> People who shop at the same Bay Area corner stores that Bodega wants to eliminate, like me, aren't worried about any problem the startup wants to solve.

You said:

> the linked FastCompany article?

Did the link change? Right now it's to an inflammatory engadget article that slurs tech workers as subhuman "things":

> "It's almost like someone said "Siri, show me why everyone hates and fears the things wearing human suits known as techies."